Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Brutal Truth by Lee Winter

1 review

ichijiku's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Edit: Dropping my score after reflecting on the white saviorism and Eurocentricism in this book as pointed out by other users.

It was a solid read, but I wish I had read this before Hotel Queens or Breaking Character because I think both are stronger showings. They also replicate the same things that bugged me about those books which I have unfortunately  come to expect from Lee Winter’s books:
  1. Nondiverse cast — There was one Hispanic character in this book whose writing felt unfortunately reductive and stereotypical. Other than that, the rest of the characters I can recall are either explicitly White or it’s not stated otherwise AFAIK. This genuinely just reads as unrealistic to me considering the settings are major metropolitan areas.
  2. The viewpoint character has much weaker development and is not nearly as likable as the ice queen character — her ice queens are SO perfect and always grapple with their flaws in a way that feels beautifully realistic and well-done considering the fantasy positions of power these women occupy. Their LIs just don’t ever get this and feel simultaneously bland and unrelatable.
  3. There being a contrived, unnecessary, and unlikely thing to tie the pairing together — Did Elena really have to read Maddie’s blog? It essentially had no plot relevance and just felt far-fetched (Much less offensive than the Shakespeare trivia in Breaking Character, however.)
  4. One non-steamy sex scene at the very end of the book. The sexual pacing feels stronger in her more recent titles.
Despite this laundry list of grievances, I did enjoy the book. I think if you truly love powerful woman characters, it is worth a shot. However, I might generally recommend Hotel Queens instead as it is (not quite but) almost free from the issues above while also having a wonderful powerful ice queen LI. 
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